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Bottled Ship Builder

AMERICA


Bruce Foxworthy

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James:

Well okay then, I'll take some pictures and draw up a print for you and post it.

It does come in handy and it's easy to make.

First thing tomorrow I'm all over it.

Catch you then.

And no, I don't think any tool we make in our crazy art is all that door busting that we should patent it. What a hoot.

Best regards Bruce

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Well I can't believe it but my little America made the whole trip.

I first made an indentation into my sea material just using my hull alone before I rigged it in any way. I pushed it down into the clay where it looked good and then I put it on a tilt towards the direction that the wind was coming from and that I had set the sails to on my build. Once I removed it, I put white clay around it's indentation to represent the wake that a sailing ship would have around itself as it was sailing. I also made some sideways indentations into that trough that was left when I removed the hull. My reason for that was so that the white 2 hour epoxy I was going to use to cement the hull in place with would have a place to meander into and thus give me a really sound anchorage for the hull before I tightened any lines. That worked out great. I put the epoxy into the previously made throgh by just loading it on a stick and then dropping that glue into the cavity. My ship was already in the bottle and I had to be very careful not to touch it at all while I was putting the epoxy in the cavity. Then I put the hull into that epoxied cavity and let it sit there for a whole day.

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The next thing I had to deal with was getting the masts to step and I used some tools I made to do that . Basically paperclip wires glued and bent into different shapes to a piece of coat hanger wire.

After the masts were in their place the next hurtle was to tighten the lines to make the ship stand up full and then I had to glue those lines off. I can tell you I waited at least three hours before I even thought about cutting them off.

Cutting the two strings that I was using to erect the whole thing after the super glue dried at their junction required me to make yet another tool to do that. I'm not going to tell you how I did that as I think the pictures alone will explain it.

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Bernard:

Thanks for the complement on my sails.

Actually I got the idea of using the, two hour white marine epoxy, from one of Daniels, threads I read somewhere on this forum. This is only the second time that I've used Plasticine modeling clay for my sea material. So far I'm liking it. Although there's a learning curve in mastering it's management. I'm also thinking that it is for me anyway, a must to utilize the epoxy for securing the hull into this material cause I do a lot of poking around when I'm setting the ship up and I certainly don't want to deal with it coming free from the sea during that time.

I'm sure that the sideways holes I poke into the bottom walls of the trough allow the epoxy to go sideways as I'm pushing the hull into it creating lateral fingers if you like that help keep me from pulling the hull out of the trough once the epoxy cures up. I also poke pin holes into the bottom of the hull area that will be in the through to help the epoxy grab better to it as well. After the epoxy cures good and I mean overnight it is nearly impossible to move or dislodge the hull from the sea material. If I ever broke something I couldn't fix inside the bottle it would be one hell of a mess to get the ship out again.

Regards Bruce

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